June 3, 2011

There’s a 1987 New Twilight Zone episode called “Private Channel” that revolves around a teenager who uses an annoying “headphones based radio” (like a Walkman) in a public setting. In this story the teenager’s behaviour is presented as being abnormal. How things change!

The other night, while catching the train home, I decided to carry out an ad hoc survey and count who wasn’t using a device that had them attached via auditory umbilical cords to a little metal box. Of the 12 people I could see, 10 were plugged in! Now don’t get me wrong – I’m no luddite – I need technology and the internet to earn an income, but what’s happened to down time / quite time / reflection time or God forbid, prayer time! It’s as if the general public – and its not just the young – find it impossible to cope with the absence of noise, let alone listening to their own thoughts!

These sorts of observations, often get me wishing for a crystal ball that can look into the future and supply me with non-fictional information which I can use for fictional story lines. Our technological developments are now becoming stranger than fiction. The fact that so many people in public spaces, present as zombies being feed their daily programming, is a reality staight out of the twilight zone. I doubt Rod Serling could have come up with a weirder idea.